The9

I'd take Kenwyne over him, which is a damning indictment of the quality of bottom-half strikers in the Premier League - then again, given tactical shifts away from multiple strikers, there's probably only half as many of them to begin with as there was in 2000. Can you imagine us needing 4 strikers of starting ability like most teams had when we were in the Premier League before?

Oh I don't know, he also decided to leave Man U when Shaw arrived...

Michael Jordan and David Beckham also should have taken number 1 then? I can't believe there's any value at all in giving a keeper number 1, their shirt sales are negligible anyway.

He played plenty of games in right midfield as well, including pre-season that year. To the point where everyone but Redknapp was screaming to get him back up front.

I would hope that they wouldn't be even remotely as decent as our L1 scufflers on that day, six former or future Premier League players in our team: K Davis D Harding W Thomas (83) C Perry R Jaidi D Hammond M Schneiderlin A Lallana M Antonio R Lambert (72) P N'Diaye Subs (83) L Holmes (72) L Barnard - seven, if you count his 3 Spurs appearances.

I'm pretty sure Saints 4-3 Norwich in April 2005 destroyed the atmosphere of my final match at the Dell, which was Saints 1-0 Leicester on a dingy Wednesday in late January 2001. Dell-sized mentality.

"Less confident" is reasonable, they're better (they have to be) and we're worse at this point - I mean it's the difference between winning by 8 and winning by 4 to me, but it's a reasonable revision of expectation.

Can't believe you haven't fallen foul of the LID REMOVERS.

My (new) Vodafone 4G preseason worked. First time I've had a way of checking the scores on my phone since WAP.

I went to Reading v Newport County last night, their level of incompetence behind the till in the away end was something to behold. Pre-half time, wanted to buy one hot chocolate. Walk up straight to the till, person turns around and starts filling plastic pint glasses for half time beers (about 8 other people were already doing that). Someone else walks up further down, some bloke turns around and serves them immediately. I'm already annoyed by this point... ...anyway, ten seconds later someone else spots that I'm waiting to be served and rolls up. Says something, so quietly I can't hear, I ask them to repeat themselves, they've just said something like "what would you like?" which is pretty obvious, but I'm half expecting "we can't serve you for no apparent reason". Anyway, game is still going on and I'm in a hurry, every second counts and all that. "I'd like a hot chocolate please" "mumblemumblesomethinginaudible" "Sorry?" "I said what did you say?" "Hot chocolate please" "that'll be £2.20" I hand over the money, she takes it, rings it up on the till, gives me change. THEN.... and only then... turns around to ask someone on the back counter to make the hot chocolate. He doesn't hear her, and carries on pouring pints About 30 seconds later, after me doing a bit of pointing, she realises he hasn't done anything. Asks him again. He absolutely sods about for a dog's age getting the lid off the pre-packed Hot Choc and adding water to it. Probably 2 minutes later he's finally got around to completing it and hands it directly to me. In the meantime, the girl who's taken my order is standing there like a lemon, not serving anyone else, even though she has absolutely no other task to perform apart from possibly handing the drink to me from the other guy. Useless, completely inefficient, and God help them if there had been more than two people to serve. So, glad that I wasn't actually waiting in a queue (they'd already taken nearly 10 minutes to serve 2 people with a beer pre-match), I made my way back to the back of the stand with the wife's hot chocolate. Edged up next to my dad, standing next to his seat, cross goes into the box, he flings his arms out, sending the Hot Chocolate (closed lid and all) soaring 3 rows forward. Luckily it misses pretty much everyone (it was the first round of the League Cup after all), and just splashes itself all across the concrete. I jumped down a couple of rows, fish it out of a seat back, stick the lid back on and hand it to the wife. It's pretty much just the goo in the bottom at this stage. On the bright side, at least they didn't take my tenner and close the shutters with me in it after a 25 minute wait (Reading v Saints pre-season circa 2003), and my dad gave me £2.50 to cover it, so I was up 30p.

Which is weird given how his decision-making for Saints early on was pretty much always "early ball into the box on the run from the right wing"...

That's because most of them have no idea we've even sold anyone.

Brilliant.

Probably nicked it off the thread on here a few weeks ago to which the lyrics were "Kissed the badge then he left Clattenburg was right Adam Lallana He changed overnight".

Interesting, feel free to share the Fabregas decision making story too!

Top trolling by the Premier League if that is the case...

As we're not playing England, I really don't care about the differentiation you're making.

Because he hasn't looked very comfortable on the left, to me. I think he'd be ok on the right but it was futile expecting him to get an early ball in from the left wing when every time he attacked the line then had to cut back onto his right foot. Ramirez is at least experienced and used to the pace of the game. He's by no means proven but at least he'd know what to expect, he's reasonably effective defensively, has the experience to play the right pass early if he was in that situation and you'd have the confidence he'd stick to the tactical plan. Anyway, as I've forgotten Ward-Prowse I'd expect him to get in ahead of Ramirez (we'd have to shift Davis and Tadic around a bit). We're going to need as much defensive nous as possible anyway.

Ah, that's ok then, we're not as weak as I'd thought. I'd have Ward-Prowse either on the bench or instead of Ramirez with Tadic on the other wing.

I'm assuming the Scan Point also flags up that you've confirmed an order and will be collecting v. soon, but who knows, have you seen our match ticketing system?

Don'twanna. And as for "tapatalk", pff.

Might make a bit more sense if they'd been at home on the weekend, but with an away match, you do wonder where that money suddenly appeared from...

It does confirm above you pay when you order, too.

Because the transfer window is open and we may be conducting transfer activity which they'd like to get a clip to illustrate, I would imagine. Why are there cameramen in village halls and council buildings all over the country on General Election Day?

So does the leaflet (didn't see any in Northam) say that bit about "grab your receipt"? That would then be in line with the "Step 4½" approach, you can have the PassBook but still need to Scan at the ground to get the paper receipt (as opposed to the "bring your own email on paper" option).